Government actions to protect the public’s health are not always consistent
What, if anything, will move a government to intervene to improve the health of its population? Government action seems to depend not on how many people will die if it fails to act but rather who they are and how they will die.When almost 3000 people died after aircraft were flown deliberately into buildings in Washington and New York in 2001, the United States government moved rapidly, with no regard for cost. In an unprecedented move, it immediately grounded all aircraft flying over the US, allowing them to fly again only subject to sweeping restrictions on what could be taken on board. Had the government failed to act rapidly, it would undoubtedly have faced widespread condemnation, not least from the representatives of corporate America, which had, in the attack on New York, been the target of mass murder.
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